Elevator



y 1933-- N. K. SMITH 1,917,669

ELEVATOR Filed Dec. 7. 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet l July 11, 1933.

N. K. SMlTH ELEVATOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 7, 1929 N; K. SMITH Julyll, 1933.

ELEVATOR Filed Dec. 7, 1929 s Sheets-Sheet 3 gowe'mfoc I Patented July 11, 1933 NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE .mson x. smrrn, or LOS ANGELES, cALironnIA, Assrenon 'ro BYRON JAcKson Co., or LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, A conronA'rron or DELAWARE ELEVATOR Application filed December 7, 1929. Serial No. 412,479.

This invention relates to elevators of the type employed for raising and lowering well casing, pump tubing, and the like, in the operations of drilling a well and maintaining 5. the well in production after it is drilled.

This invention mainly relates to features of construction that are applicable to, sotermed, double door elevators. In other respects the invention relates to a vertically operating latch.

An import-ant object of. the invention .is to prevent, by acomparatively simple construction, the doors getting out ofalignment with one another which would make it impossible for the doors to be closed about the casing until they were aligned.

.Another object is to provide a vertically swinging latch whose center of gravity, when the latch is closed, is inwardly of a vertical plane that passes through the axis of the latch pivot so that the weight of the latch tends to forcibly close it, if it has not been entirely closed by the operator when the elevator strikes the lower end of the collar or coupling of the tubing or casing as said elevator is hoisted after being closed about the tubing or casing at some point below the level'of said collar or coupling.

Another object is the provision of a latch that operates in a. vertical plane toward and from the vertical axis of the elevator.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the subj oined detailed'description.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the invention:

Fig. 1 is a plan View of an elevator constrncted in accordance with the provisions of this invention, the doors being closed in readiness for supporting a casing or other member that is to be lifted or lowered.

Fig. 2 is a front elevation of Fig. 1.

' ,Fig. 3 is a vertical elevation from the irregular line indicated by 3-3 Fig. 1, a portion being in section on said line. The latch is shown closed in full lines and in unlatched position in dotted lines.

Fig. =1 is a fragmental elevation, partly in section,

1 from the line indicated by 4-4, ll Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a fragmental horizontal section on the lineindicated by 55, Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a rear elevation of Fig. 1, showing the back of the elevator.

Fig. 7 is a horizontal section on the line indicated by 77, Fig. 6, the parts being in the positions they occupy when the doors are open.

Referring to the drawings, there is provided a pair'of members or doors 11, each of which is provided'in its inner face with a semi-circular recess 12 which, together with the inner concave face 13 of a member 14 constitute the bore of the elevator. The doors 11 are connected by pivots 15 with the member 14 so that the doors can be swung into open position for reception of the casing or other member that is to be supported by the elevator.

Each of the pivots 15 passes through upper and lower cars 16, 17, respectively, that project rearwardly and each of said pivots also passes through spaced upper and lower cars 18, 19 that project laterally from the member 14. The ears 18, 19 are disposed between the ears 16, 17, and the member 14: has a central portion 20 that projects upwardly above the level ofthe cars 18 between the rear end portions of the doors 11. The curved face 13 is the inner face of the portion '20. In this instance the .pivots 15 are held in place by being threaded, as indicated at 21, into the cars 17 and the upper ends of the pins are provided with heads 22 which engage the upper faces of the cars 16. 85

The cars 17 practically meet in a plane that passes through the axis of the elevator bore and the adjacent faces of the ears 17 are con vex so that said ears will not interfere with one another in the closing movement of the doors and so, at the same time, when the doors are closed the inner convex faces 221 of said ears 17 are contiguous. The cars 17 areprovided with recesses 23 in their adjacent faces for the accommodation of a loose or floating bar 24, the purpose of which is to maintain the doors against becoming offset from one another as respects the axes of the pivots 15. By this construction, just de scribed, for pivotally connecting the doors is disclosed a trunnion constructionfor the elevatpr that will cooperate with the elevator bail links in a manner to avoid accidental to force the doors out of their closing of the elevator by gravity after said elevator has been opened and is being raised into position to be placed around another section of casing or tubing. To obtain this same result, I provide a different construction of the trunnion as will now be described:

The trunnions are indicated at 25 and they are in a plane that passes through the axis of the elevator bore. Each trunnion 25 is bifurcated or provided with a vertical slot 26 in which is pivotally mounted at 27 a suitable keeper 28 for. preventing the elevator bad links, not shown, from becoming accidentally detached from the elevator doors. The keepers 28, not, being a portion of the present invention, need not be described in detail herein as keepers of this type are well understood in the art relating to oil well elevators.

Each of the vertical slots 26 divides the trunnion 25 into a pair of ears 29, 30, the

trunnion ears 29 being the front ones and the trunnion ears 30 being the rear ones. The bottom faces of the cars 29 are constructed dllferently than the bottom faces of the ears 30, since the bottom faces of the front cars 29, as seen in F ig.2 at 31, extend aslant downwardly and outwardly so as to tend to hold the links of the elevator bail inwardly away from the keepers 28. The bottom faces 32 of the rear ears 3O are'substantially horizontal so that when the elevator doors are open and the elevator tilts forwardly and downwardly on the bail links, as is generally the case, the said links, which then stand oblique with reference to the trunnions, will not bind on the ears 30 in a manner to tend full open positions. the trunnions prevent the hail from strainlng against the keepers 28 while the horizontal faces 32 of the trunnions permit tiltmg of the open. doors without such binding between the bail links and trunnions as would tend to close said doors. The latch construction is as follows The doors 11 are provided, respectively, with forwardlyprojecting lugs 33, 34 which, when the doors are closed, are juxtaposed as seen 1n Fig. 5. In this juxtaposed position the lugs 33, 34 are adapted to be embraced by a latch 35 which is provided with an opening or recess 36 to accommodate. said lugs 33, 34. The latch 35 is movably mounted so that it Thus the slanting portions 31 of can be withdrawn from the lugs 33, 34 and, in this instance, the mounting of; the latch 35 is such as to provide for swinging 1' rocking of said latch toward and from the doors.

To secure this swinging or rocking movement,-

the doors 11, the pivot 37 passing transverse ly through said ear 40. Thus the cars 38 embrace the ear 40. The axis of the pivot 37 lies in a vertical plane that parallels the axis of the elevator bore and, preferably, said plane lies outwardly from the lugs 33, 34. To secure this result the upper portion of the latch constitutes a horizontal leg 41 projecting from the vertical leg 42 of the latch,

which vertical leg is provided with the recess 36.

The weight of the latch 35 is distributed in sucha manner with respect to its pivot 37 that the center of gravity of the latch, when the latch is closed, is inwardly of a vertical plane that passes through the axis of the latch pivot so that the weight of the latch tends to forcibly close it, if it has not been entirely closed by the operator when the elevator strikes the lower end of the collaror coupling of the. tubing or casing as said elevator is hoisted after being closed about the tubing or casing at some point below the level of said collar or coupling. I

The latch is further insured against opening, when closed, by reason of the outer face 4210f the lug 34, which is the face that is adjacent to the latch, extending aslant inwardly toward the bore of the elevator. For the same reason the adjacent face 422 of the latch, preferably, is of a complementary slant.

The outer end of the latch leg 41 is provided with a downwardly extending handle 43 which is spaced from the latch leg 42 so that the .fingers of the operators hand can pass between the handle 43 and leg'42 to grasp said handle 43. In this instance, the handle 43 extends downwardly toward the leg 42. The handle 43 has an angular portion 44 at its upper end where it connects with the leg 41 so that that portion of the handle that is grasped by the operator is positioned approximately in alignment with the lugs 33, 34.

Each of the doors 11 is provided with a handle 45 and when the elevator is closed, the handles are approximately in alignment with the handle 43, as clearly shown in Fig. 5. Thus the several handles are conveniently positioned near one another and in the same plane so that convenience in opening and closing the elevator is insured. The handle 45 also extendsaslant downwardly toward the preferable not to depend entirely upon gravity but to provide means for yieldingly urging the latch toward its latching position. For this purpose there .is provided a coil spring 49 which seats at one'end within a recess 50 provided in the door on which the latch is mounted. The other end of the spring 49 seats on top of'the leg 41 outwardly from thelatch pivot 37, thus tending to force the leg 42 inwardly toward the doors and in a plane that passes through the lugs 33, 34.

The construction and operation of the invention will be understood from the foregoing description, and, briefly stated, the operations is as follows: Assuming that the elevator is closed, as illustrated in Fig. 1, that it is suspended from the elevator bail, not shown, and that it is desired to open the elevator preliminarily to engaging it around a well casing, pump tubing, or the like, the

operator, standing in front of the elevator, grasps the latch handle 43 and pulls it toward him, thus moving the latch recess36 out of the vertical plane occupied by the lugs-33, 34.

While holding the latch open, the oper-v ator then grasps the handle 45 of that door on which the latch is not mounted and forces the door open to a sufiicientextent so that he can release the latch without said latch embracing the lug 34. He then releases the latch and grasps the handle 45 of the other door and pressing outwardly. against both handles 45 simultaneously swings both doors into their wide open positions.

The elevator is then swung into a position to surround the tubing that is to be raised or lowered, in a manner well understood in this art, and'the operator then grasps the door handles 45'and pulls'thern toward one another so as to close the doors about the tubing. As the lug 34 and latch 35 come into a position, in the closing movement of the door, to engage, the lug 34. causes the latch to swing outwardly against the retracting force of the latch spring so that the lug 34 will readily slide past the latch and into the recess 36 of said latch. In order to facilitate this, the outer corner of the lug 34 that is adjacent tothe lug 33 is curved or beveled, as indicated at 51 and, also, that portion of the latch 35 that, in the closing movement of the doors strikes the lug 34, is beveled inwardly and rearwardly, as inclicated at 52.

Referring more particularly to Fig. -7, the

action of the floating bar 24 in maintaining the doors in registration will be readily understood for, assuming that the doors are being closed, it there should be a tendency for the operation of the doors to cause of!- setting of said doors with respect to one an- 7 other, engagement of the floating bar 24 with the walls of the'recesses 23 would prevent such displacement of either or both doors as would ofiset them.

I claim:

1. An elevator of the character described [comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting said doors at one end, a lug on the other end of each door, a latch mounted on one of the doors at a difi'erent level than the lugs and movable toward and from said doors and provided with a recess to receive the'lugs when the doors are closed.

2'. An elevator of the character'described comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting said doors at one end, a .lug on the other end of each door, a latch pivotally mounted on one of the doors at a difierent level than the lugs and movable toward and from sa d doors and provided with a recess to receive the lugs when the doors are closed.

3. An elevator of the character described comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting saiddoors at one end, a:lug projecting horizontally from the other end of each door, a latch mounted on one of the doorsat a different level than the lugs an movable toward and from said doors and provided with a recess to receive the lugs when the doors are closed.

4. An elevator of the character described comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting said doors at one end, a lug projecting horizontally from the other end of each door, a latch provided with a recess to receive the lugs when the doors are closed, and a horizontal pivot at a diiferent level than the lugs connecting thelatch with one of said doors, said pivot being at substantially a right angle to a plane extending through the vertical axis of the elevator and midway between the doors.

5. An elevator of the character described Y comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting said doors at one end, a lug projecting horizontally from the other end of each door, a latch provided with a horizontal leg and with a vertical leg and with a recess to receive the lugs when the doors are 6. An elevator of the character described comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting said doors at one end, a lug on comprising two casing engaging aws hugthe other end of each door, a latch mounted on one of the doors. movable toward and from said doors and provided with a recess to receive the ln s when the doors are closed, one of the lugs aving its outer face extending aslant inwardly toward the bore of the elevator for engagement by the adjacent wall of the latch recess.

7. An elevator of the character described comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting said doors at one end, a lug on the other end of each door, a latch mounted on one of the doors movable toward and from said doors and provided with a'recess to receive the lugs when the doors are closed, one of the lugs having its outer face extending aslant inwardly toward the bore of the elevator for engagement by the adjacent wall of the latch recess and said adjacent wall of the latch recess provided with a complementary slant.

8. An elevator of the character described comprising doors provided in their inner faces with concave recesses, means pivotally connecting said doors at one end, and a. latch pivoted to the other end of one of the doors and engaging over cooperating means on the doors, the upper portion of the latch constituting a horizontal le and the latch pivot extending horizontally Fhrough said leg, the

outer end of the le provided with a downwardly extending andle.

9. An elevator of the character described,

edly connected together, 8. lug on one of said jaws projecting outwardly therefrom and latch means mounted on the other jaw for engaging said lug when said jaws are in closed position, and a face on said latch contacting with a face on said lug to prevent opening of said jaws, the contact faces on said lug and latch being so shaped that separation of said jaws tends to force said latch further onto said lug.

. 10. An elevator of the type described, comprising two casing engaging jaws hingedly connected together at one end, a latch, hinge means securing said latch to one of said jaws, said latch moving into locking and releasing positions by rotation about said hinged means and having a contact surface which moves through an arc about said hin e during rotation of the latch, a lug on sai other aw having a surface engaging with the surface of said latch in locking position, the outer portion of said lug surface extending into the said path of said latch surface whereby opening force on said jaws locks said latch against rotation into its releasing position.

Signed at Los Angeles, California, this 25th day of November 1929.

NELSON K. SMITH. 

